
The last frost has come and gone here in Ontario, which means: It’s gardening time! This is a beautiful time of year, and one of my favourite things about it is planting my garden! I have revamped my vegetable garden this year, so my organic tomatoes and cucumbers are happily planted, along with organic peppers, squashes, pumpkins, zucchinis, leeks, green onions, and countless herbs. It is a leafy green, organic paradise, and I love it!
Now, I’m not sure where you fall on the spectrum of gardeners. Perhaps the fact that I just wrote “spectrum of gardeners” gives you an idea of where I fall. I can practically hear many of you now: “There’s a spectrum?!” Yes, my dear reader: a spectrum. There are your garden variety gardeners, your grandmother gardeners, and your single-garden-box-in-the-window city wannabes. (I remember those days well.) And then there are those who go overkill, like me and my massive red gallon buckets of hanging tomatoes. (Yes, you read that right. My tomatoes hang.)
I garden like I run my business: intensely, no holds barred, all in to get the most out. And so, not only do I have eight large garden boxes for vegetables alone, but I also have a mini orchard, large red buckets growing potatoes and tomatoes, an in-ground herb garden, potted herbs, a series of rotating trays for growing fresh sprouts, and an indoor grow tent housed in my house’s former cistern. (I haven’t even mentioned my flower beds yet.) And all of my plants – from every sprig of fresh Rosemary to every baby cherry tomato – are organic.
Now, I get many questions about my garden. There is the typical, overwhelmed, wide-eyed: “Why?!” My personal favourites are those from the strangers who stop at the side of the road to stare with gaping mouths and ask about my hanging tomato gardens. But by far the most common question I get about my garden is: “How do you keep it organic?!”
My secret weapon? Using essential oils for gardening.Yes, essential oils.
Now, when I suggest using essential oils for gardening, people often give me a weird look. (Or maybe it’s the slight lingering smell of chicken poop from working in my chicken coop…) Many people think they need to use pesticide sprays to kill weeds, harsh chemicals to trap beetles, and soil that has been injected with inorganic matter to achieve a luscious garden.
Well, I’m here to tell you that that is absolutely not the case! With just a few essential oils for gardening and some basic education about organic gardening, you will be saving money and growing an abundance of delicious vegetables before you know it! And all without those nasty chemicals!
There are two ways to use essential oils for gardening:
You can use oils to help your garden; and
You can use oils to help you while you garden.
While tips and tricks for warding off mosquitoes and avoiding sunstroke while you garden are wonderful, this blog post will focus on how to effectively use essential oils for your garden. Specifically, I want to share with you three easy recipes that will help you grow organic by using essential oils for gardening.
I can’t do your organic gardening for you (and, honestly, I have more than enough of my own garden beds to work on!), but these recipes should make your organic gardening life just that much simpler!
Ready? Set? Grow! (Puns are like organic vegetables–hard to resist.)
Insect Deterrent Spray (for your plants)
Ingredients (per cup of water):
1 drop doTERRA Peppermint Essential Oil
1 drop of doTERRA Rosemary Essential Oil
1 drop of doTERRA Thyme Essential Oil
Instructions:
In a large spray bottle, combine the following ingredients (per cup of water). Shake well before each use. Spray on plants in the early mornings or evenings.
Fungus Spray
Ingredients:
5 drops doTERRA Tea Tree Essential Oil
1 drop of doTERRA Oregano Essential Oil
1 squirt of Castile soap
3 tablespoons of baking soda
Instructions:
In a 1 gallon spray bottle, mix these ingredients together. Fill the spray bottle with water and shake well. Spray the leaves of your affected plants once a week, in the morning or evening.
Weed Killing Spray
Ingredients:
1 squirt of Castile soap
15 drops doTERRA Clove Essential Oil
10 drops of doTERRA Cinnamon Essential Oil
Distilled white vinegar (pour up to the fill line)
Instructions:
In a large pump spray bottle, combine the above ingredients. Screw on the top of the spray bottle and shake well before use. Warning: Be sure to spray this on weeds only, since it will be harmful to your garden plants!
Using these essential oils for gardening helps to keep my garden thriving. And it’s not hard! You can use these three quick, easy, and natural solutions as frequently as you need to in order to ward off bugs, scare away the fungus, and kill those pesky weeds. It may not be super intuitive at first, but using essential oils for gardening will make your lofty dream of having an organic garden that much more attainable!
And really, when you think about it, it makes sense! While nature is by no means organized and well-tended like we try to keep our gardens, there is a natural order to the plant and animal kingdoms. There are predators and prey, with other animals being the natural solutions that keep pest populations in check and trample weeds that might otherwise take over. By using essential oils in gardening, you are just harnessing the natural power that is already found in Creation and using it to help tame your garden and produce healthy organic food!
So keep going and keep growing! While it may seem daunting right now, I’m fully convinced that, if you put your mind to it, you will get that organic garden you’ve been dreaming of! And I hope these tips and tricks that I’ve learned on my own organic gardening journey will help you on your own!
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I hope you enjoy this article